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Witnessed
Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis, Mutiny Within, 2010-01-20
02/02/10 || InquisitorGeneralis
Who: Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis, and Mutiny Within
When: 20 January, 2010
Where: The Recher Theatre, Towson Maryland.
Nothing like going to a death metal concert stoned and by yourself on a Wednesday night…God I hate my life. Well, this was a promising line-up and only two minutes from my house so fuck me I had to go, even though I was skipping out on a certainly-to-be delicious pizzabagel dinner at my girlfriend’s bestie’s house. Who needs friends, and pizzabagels, when you have metal? So, after smoking a blunt to the dome I head off to witness the opening night of the “Tyrants of Evil” tour and hopefully get an Angela-induced boner at some point during the show.
First up was Mutiny Within who caused carnage and suffering… within my mutherfucken bowels. This band sucks and sucks fucking hard. According to Metal Archives these bozos are “Progressive Melodic Death Metal/Metalcore”. Translation: they suck. As soon as I saw one dude rocking out with a keyboard/keytar hybrid apparatus thingy I knew this was going to be rough. After about thirty painful minutes or terrible clean singing, cookie-cutter breakdowns, and just plain Jersey-bred awfulness Mutiny Within finally packed it in and hopefully went in the back and quit making music altogether. Did I mention they sucked? Next please.
Setlist:
Six or so songs that sucked a cheetah’s nuts. ‘Nuff said.
Mutiny Within get -10 dead fetuses aborted out of 10 knocked up teen moms just because.
I am sure my hatred for Mutiny Within was amplified by the fact that the band I was most anxious to see was coming on after their horrific pile of melocoreshit set of wankery. I have followed Arsis throughout their career, seeing them first back in the “Celebration of Guilt” days. Last I saw them they had Darren Cesca on drums and some random fat guy singing due to James Malone having vocal and other health issues. Well, things have changed and original drummer Mike Van Dyne is back and James is in good health… supposedly. Anywho, Arsis delivered and besides a few bad vocal spots here and there they really got the night going and delivered an ace performance.
Two new songs started things off: “Forced to rock” and “March for the sick”: both were straightforward and a return to prior Arsis form. Being the first night of the tour it was clear James is not in 100% vocal shape but the dude can still shred with the best of them and the band was tight behind him. One negative though was the inclusion of “A diamond for disease” it its shortened form. I would rather hear the whole track or nothing at all. Plus, we got the “Promise of never” and two cuts from one three-song EP seems odd, especially since nothing was played from “United in Regret”.
The exclusion of “United…” material especially disappointed this Arsis fanboy who would whore out his grandmother to hear “I speak through shadows” or “Lust before the maggots conquest” live. However, Arsis was damn good and tore up “We are the nightmare”. “The sadistic motives behind bereavement letters” was incredible and the expected closer “Face of my innocence” ended Arsis’ short but extremely enjoyable set on a great note. Next up, Bay Area trashmasters Exodus…
Arsis gets 8 appeals from IG to play 10 longer fucking sets
Setlist:
Forced to rock
A March for the sick
A diamond for disease (short version)
We are the nightmare
The sadistic motive behind bereavement letters
The promise of never
The face of my innocence
This was my first time seeing Gary Holt and the Holy Haters of Jeebus… err I mean Exodus and I was pretty excited. I like the old 80s stuff and I rub my purpleheaded love dolphin into foamy bliss every time I listen to “Tempo of the Damned”. Here are my thoughts on getting with us… Exodus!
1) The drummer fucking rules! Tom Hunting can tear it up and really provides a solid backbone to every song. I was rocking out like a madman when he laid into the killer intro to “Blacklist”. Hunting also tore up “Children of a worthless god” which may just motivate me to buy “The Atrocity Exhibition A” from whence it came. Overall the whole band seemed on point and were pretty impressive.
2) Rob Dukes is a mediocre vocalist at best but I would give anything to have Zetro Souza back on the mic. He said alot of stupid bullshit between songs but one of those times was to cover for Holt’s guitar which was fucked up the first few songs. Like three or four times Holt’s guitar tech had to come on stage and work on shit. Still, the band was loud as fuck so his vocals neither killed or made the show. He’s big and fat, he was there… nothing special.
3) The setlist was a nice mix of material so that was good. Old-school hits like “A lesson in violence”, “Bonded by blood”, and “Piranha” mixed in with new shit like “Deathamphetamine” and “Iconoclasm”. The highlights for me were definitely the back-to-back cuts from “Tempo…”: “Blacklist” followed by “War is my shepard”. Nothing from “Pleasures of the flesh” or the 90s albums though. “Toxic Waltz” was the expected but enjoyable closer. I’ll see them again probably. There had a decent set and, besides Holt’s fucked up guitar, good sound.
Exodus gets 7 shitty guitar techs who need to be covered in 10 shrouds of urine.
Setlist:
Bonded by blood
Iconoclasm
A lesson in violence
Children of a worthless god
Piranha
Deathampethamine
Blacklist
War is my shepherd
Strike of the beast
Toxic Waltz
Last up were Swedish melodeath stalwarts Arch Enemy. I am not going to lie: I was much more excited for Arsis and Exodus. Not because I have ill feelings towards Angela and the boys, I actually enjoy them quite a bit. It’s just I have seen them six times live now and this will be the third time since the release of “Rise of the Tyrant”. Me and Daemo first saw them way back in 2002 when ‘Wages of Sin” (still my favorite Arch Enemy release) was the hot ticket and they tore the New England Metal and Hardcore festival up something fierce.
Still, the band was solid and played a long set with a few of my personal favorites tossed in so I left a relatively happy boy. “Revolution begins” is my favorite track from “Rise of the Penis” and got said penis excited early. “My apocalypse” for some reason is much more enjoyable like than on the “Doomsday Machine” album. “Dead bury your dead” is a dominating song. I wish more “Wages…” material was played though besides that and “Ravenous”. C’mon guys and gal! “First deadly sin”, “Heart of darkness”, “Burning angel”? Any of those three would have been a better call than “Silent wars” or “Dead eyes see no future”. I know Arch Enemy needs to cater to the recent fans but nothing they have put out recently is as good as older material. I know, I am a crotchety old metalheads… rah rah fucken rah.
Still, going out with “Nemesis” and the super old-school pre-Angela “Fields of Desolation” was a good move and besides my issues with a few points on the set the band was excellent and put on a great show. Two solos was a bit much. We get it guys, you can fucken play well. Another actual song would have been better. Kudos to Erlandsson behind the kit though, he is always impressive. Angela again proved to be metal as fuck and she is a great front person period. Another pleasing Arch Enemy show. Nothing insanely super-awesome, but worth the price of admission for sure.
Overall the night was great, especially for being the kickoff of a relatively big tour. Mutiny Within can lick my anus, Arsis rule and should be the next big thing, Exodus are better than I thought, and Arch Enemy continue to provide quality, consistent melodic Swedeath to the masses.
Arch Enemy get 7 times I have seen them out of 10 more times I probably will.
Setlist:
The Immortal
Revolution Begins
Ravenous
Taking Back My Soul
My Apocalypse
Silent Wars
Drum Solo
I Will Live Again
Dead Eyes See No Future
Blood on Your Hands
Bury Me an Angel
Guitar Solo
Dead Bury Their Dead
We Will Rise
Encores
Snow Bound
Nemesis
Fields of Desolation
